roses burnt dead
by Ten-Faced
Summary: because he thought the charred blooms represented them well. – Hades/Hestia, .:Hades-centric:.


For those who read my other Hades/Hestia oneshot, 'maiden of the hearth', don't mind if it's simliar... it's by the same author, uses the same fanon/headcanon, and is pretty much the flip of that one.

* * *

His earliest memories are that of his mother, desperately fleeing. "_I – won't – let – you – be – eaten – like – Hestia,_" she pants, her exhausted voice tinged with desperation.

He lies in the bundle, and knows to be quiet while his mother, with the tears from her face splashing him, sobs and runs away.

Behind her, laughter and roars come. "Oh, baby," she mumbles with gentleness, and he knows that she'd be patting his cheek and playing with him if the situation – whatever it may be – isn't so dire. "Oh, Hades, my poor first son."

Hades. He likes that name. It is right for him.

"Rhea!" the thunderous voice booms out behind them, and he feels his mother straining at her limits, trying to flee. "Give me the child!"

And now, he too is scared. Instinct alone tells him that this voice, this man, will do him harm.

His mother runs some more, but then, she is struck at from behind, and with a cry, she falls to the ground. Hades feels himself picked up by the bundle to see the tall man with the cruel face and sharp, cold golden eyes.

"Hello, son," he smirks, and opens his mouth.

Instinct alone tells him to close his eyes.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

It's not cold, but it's not warm. A rather uncomfortable feeling.

A girl is holding him close to her, and she is warm. She is comfortable. She is humming a soft song, and the words and her voice lulls him back to sleep.

The last thing he sees is her sorrowfully smiling face, and he wonders why she is sad.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

He wakes up.

She has her back to him, but when she turns to face him, her lips are turned up in that soft, sad smile again.

_Who are you?_ He cannot help but ask, and he's surprised at how strange he sounds here.

She replies easily. _I am Hestia._

It seems only fitting that he give her his name. _And I am Hades._

The smile turns just a bit happier. _I am glad to meet you, brother, but please, forgive my selfishness._

Hades does not understand why she is selfish for being glad to see him, does not understand why this girl, appearing to be nine years of age or so, seems so sad and yet so happy.

Unconsciously, his body ages a bit more until his body is at the age of twelve.

And now the strange mix of emotions at meeting his sister feels more natural, but not quite so.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

It isn't until Demeter comes that he understands just why Hestia told him she was selfish; the longing of company. There's no one here except them, and while he does love Hestia, he finds that there's a craving for more life, more people.

So when the golden haired girl comes in and begins to cry, he welcomes the foreign sound so rich to his ears.

It gets annoying, though, and now he wishes that there were only two of them again.

He tells Hestia this, but she scolds him.

But it's alright; for he saw her smile.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

Poseidon.

From the first time he saw the newly born, Hades knew. He knew that they would be rivals, that they would clash.

They shift their bodies so that they appear to be rugged youths, at the age of twenty or so. And each day, in that dreadful prison, they spend time wrestling each other, often sparring and trying to see who is stronger.

Hestia and Demeter disapproves, because most of the time, they end up arguing and the physical fight turns into a verbal one.

He doesn't quite stop this, even with Hestia's disapproval, because after they run off to different direction, she comes and sits with him, holding his hand and sending him moral support.

He holds on, the body finally realizing the emotions, and tries to send what he feels back, but she never seems to get it, and it just ends with him letting go reluctantly, pretending that all is right again.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

Demeter came to him once, after a fight.

It started with her chattering about how he and Poseidon shouldn't fight so much, although she hoped that it gave their father indigestion, because really, who wouldn't have an upset stomach when their children were having an earthshaking match in them?

_Shut up, please._

He had thought he was being polite, adding the 'please' and all that. She hadn't, and the apparent insult unleashed a rant hidden inside her. He kept silent, accepting all the words she must have picked up from their brother, until she reached Hestia.

_And you won't even man up enough to tell her you love her, so instead you just take it out on your younger siblings!_

_Shut up!_

He had roared at that, and she had shrieked back, neither backing down. In the end, he left before he would do something he knew he would later regret, and left her crying.

Hades refused to admit anything, so when Hestia came to him silently offering her hand, he all but crushed it, trying to convey to her his feelings, his confusion, his hope.

She didn't.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

Hera joined them.

At least she somewhat behaved herself, unlike his other younger siblings. She was more like Hestia, something he gruffly applauded.

Her presence also worried them. Before her, there had been two of each gender. Now, it was uneven. Would another child be condemned to this life of eternal imprisonment in this twilight-like zone?

Now the three sisters were almost impossible to separate, always together, singing or talking about everything and nothing at all.

It baffled both him and Poseidon, just how they could talk so much.

But even the males fighting for dominance are respectful of beauty when they begin to sing, stopping their fight to listen and show admiration afterwards.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

When the next bundle falls, Hades feels that there is something dreadfully wrong. The bundle does not move, does not make a sound, so deathly quiet and still.

Hestia tries to not show it, but he – and the rest of them – all see it. Their eldest sibling is scared, and soused to being dependant on her for such a long time, the rest are scared by default.

He snaps out of it first, and lays a hand of what he hopes to be comfort on her shoulder. The rest, seeing his cue, follow, each with their own method of encouragement.

In the end, it's revealed that the 'baby' was nothing but a rock, and they all laugh heartily about it.

And yet, it's only him that seems to notice…

Their father swallowed this, most likely thinking that it was a child of his. Perhaps their last sibling avoided being imprisoned?

He keeps it quiet. Hope can be absolutely deadly when it is crushed.

Hades speaks from experience.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

He thinks they are about to die.

Their prison, the innards of their immortal father, quakes and drags his siblings to an unknown place.

Seeing Hestia try to reach them all, he snaps out of such thoughts and begins to head towards her the best he can, but the prison is flexing and shifting, and distance is harder to cross.

Hades never reaches her, and that is what he thinks will haunt him for all eternity, or however long the rest of his life would be.

And then, he sees light.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

It turns out he had been correct in his assumptions; their sibling had survived, and now he had rescued them.

Zeus. Even from first sight, he knows, just like he did when he first lay his eyes on Poseidon, that they will be rivals.

Poseidon and Zeus seem to be thinking the same as him.

The sisters are as close as ever. He assumes it's a man thing.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

War.

The fighters do not die, but the others surrounding them, innocent bystanders do.

Hades keeps thinking that he feels them, and that feeling only deepens when he puts his Helm of Darkness on. In the shadows, he thinks he feels the feathery brushes of ghostly fingers, thinks he hears their whispers, speaking but not understood.

He goes to see Hestia, sitting by the stream, and she seems surprised as she stares at the mirror-like surface of the water.

It occurs to him that this is the first time she has seen what she looks like.

He says nothing, but she thanks him when he pulls back and smoothes her hair.

Later, Poseidon demands to know just why he has had that foolish grin plastered on his face for a solid hour.

_(It's barely noticeable, but he supposes on him, any grin is unusual)_

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

Poseidon is injured in his trident arm. Nothing he won't heal from, but there's no fighting with it.

Hades himself has gotten his leg hurt badly, and Hestia wraps it up silently with her cloak. He tries to protest, claiming that he can fight still, but a look from her silences him.

They watch as the youngest but strongest of them all, Zeus, battles their father. He is their only hope, and despite him not liking hope for all the damage he has received from it before, Hades finds himself with it in his heart as they silently gaze upon the battle of the millennium. Watches his brother, whom he had never met before this, fight the man whose smirking face has been branded into his brain before he had been swallowed.

When Victory is clearly in the hands of Zeus, and it seems that Hestia cannot make herself watch, it is Hades who holds her close, cut off from the rest of the world as he tries to block out the sounds of agony from their father by humming tunelessly.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

He is, contrary to popular belief, happy at the fact that his domain is the Underworld. Below there, he is among the dead that gives him an endless army at his disposal, and there are all the riches in the world.

Hades has always found himself awkward around life, anyways.

But when he is told, that because of his deathly status, he has no place in the Council of Life, Hestia, quiet, easygoing Hestia, is outraged, almost spitting fire like the hearth she has claimed peacefully. The others are cowering at this unusual behaviour, but they do not change their minds, which only fuels her rage even more.

In the end, he lies to her, tells her that he does not mind.

She knows that it is not the truth, but she gives in to his silent pleas, and holds his hand, although her grip is tighter than before.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

There are definitely disadvantages to living in the Underworld. Rarely does he get news the moment it happens like everyone else.

So when he hears from a dead soul heading to the Fields of Punishment talking about how the goddess of the hearth has chosen to remain an eternal virgin rather than marry the Lord of the Oceans or the Sun God, he threatens to send it to the deepest pits of Tartarus if he does not speak of all he knows.

Hades is shocked to hear that it has already been a month or so since the public announcement, and he all but rips apart the earth to get to the surface.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

"Why?" he demands before she can move onto greeting him.

Hestia understands immediately. That does not mean she will answer, though, and in her fire-changed eyes and simplified face, Hades sees that she is silently pleading at him, just as he is pleading to her to tell him why.

Holding back his tears, he does as she silently requests.

Hades almost turns back when he hears a strangled sob, but he knows her all too well, that this is not what she wants at the moment.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

It doesn't mean that roses aren't sent to her. Black, the blossoms are, but they are burnt, charcoal petals so fragile they would crumble into ash if only a little forced.

Others would think this an insult, but she sees it differently. A gift of harsh, sad beauty, those roses are, and as an apology for not being there, an apology for not saying anything before.

**_H:A:D:E:S_**

No one knows she treasures them forever.

* * *

Like I said... I love this random couple.


End file.
